Saturday, May 5, 2012

A Pension Discussion with Eric Zorn, a Columnist for the Chicago Tribune

To Glen,

I’m glad you’ve agreed to have this e-mail
exchange with me because I’m hopeful we can begin to clear up the points of
difference between current and former public school teachers and critics of at
least certain aspects of the education system.

I don't consider myself an adversary. I have
great respect for teachers and am a staunch defender of the idea of public
education. Though there are obviously lazy, untalented teachers among the ranks
– as in any profession – I believe the percentage is not large and that schools
absorb far too much of the blame when students underperform.

That said, I tend to share the view of those
who say that union contracts have insulated teachers from some of the realities
of life in the private sector experienced by those who pay their salaries.
These agreements have made it too difficult to identify and fire poor
employees, insulated employees from salary-market realities and established a
retirement benefit program more generous and secure than most of us can look forward
to.

It’s envy when you wish you had the job and
retirement security and the regular raises that others have. When your taxes
are paying for it, that envy becomes tinged with resentment – not just regarding
teachers, but all public employees.

And when your state, county and city are
bleeding red ink, threatening services, because over the years these
public-employee arrangements haven’t been subject to the normal supply and
demand forces that govern most of private employment, that resentment boils
into frustration and impatience whenever these employees complain about not
getting what they’ve earned, fair and square.

Are these feelings unreasonable?

Eric Zorn

Dear Eric,

As a former public school teacher, I appreciate an opportunity to
have this discussion with you. There is a legal point of view to consider
regarding your suggestion that union “agreements have made it too difficult to
identify and fire poor employees.” Most people believe that tenure means never
being “fired.” Besides establishing a sensible expectation of continued
employment, tenure law protects a teacher against discrimination, such as age,
race, religion, gender, and ethnicity (a guaranteed due process of law).
Nevertheless, tenure law does not protect an incompetent teacher.

Teachers accept legal contracts in Illinois; for example, teachers
do not pay into Social Security; their pension is generally their only source
of retirement income.Thus, the average
teacher’s pension compared to someone with a college education in the private
sector is not “generous.”It is
reasonable for a teacher to expect a pension contract to be a binding
agreement. Would you agree?

Defined-benefit pension plans work effectively if they are fully
funded.Accordingly, these plans have an
economic impact of hundreds of billions of dollars each year and support
several million American workers in their jobs across the nation;
defined-benefit pension plans contribute over a hundred billion dollars in
annual local, state, and federal revenue (National Institute on Retirement
Security).The effect upon our state’s
economy should the incomes of hundreds of thousands of middle-class Illinois
residents be unilaterally diminished would be devastating.

Ironically, a teacher’s pension is still being blamed for
Illinois’ budget deficits when the money that should have been paid to the
pension system was used to cover essential services and other special interests
of the state for several decades.It is
“unreasonable” to blame teachers and other state employees for “our state,
county and cities’… bleeding red ink…” All citizens of this country should
“boil into frustration and impatience” when we consider it was corporate
America and the financial sector’s risks posed by credit default swaps,
mortgaged-backed securities and derivatives that ignited the financial
collapse. Unfortunately, in Illinois, the state government has added to this
financial catastrophe by giving excessive tax breaks to corporations. We should
be asking whether it is reasonable for Illinois policymakers to give taxpayers’
dollars to big businesses making billions in profits.

The problem we all confront is not public employees’ pension,
benefits and bargaining rights, for public employees have served their
communities throughout their careers. The problem we must address is the
state’s inequitable revenue system. This should be the focus and conversation
in Springfield and in the media. Do you believe these statements are reasonable?

Teacher/Poet/Musician

Copyrights & Fair Use: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of issues vital to a democracy. I believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law.

Persona

A writer must “know and have an ever-present consciousness that this world is a world of fools and rogues… tormented with envy, consumed with vanity; selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions… He should free himself of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, politics…” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). “The nobility of the writer's occupation lies in resisting oppression, thus in accepting isolation” —Albert Camus (1913-1960). “What are you gonna do” —Bertha Brown (1895-1987).